Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner - Belfast

You'll be joining the Northern Ireland finance team at an exciting time, with full fibre being the cornerstone of our strategy, with the key part of that building fibre and provision of customers on to the platform. This role is therefore a pivotal role for the commercial success of the business. Along with reporting the monthly and full year outlook for NI revenue performance versus plan. This role will also be accountable for the management and control of the Northern Ireland Field and Desk costs, plus other operating costs to drive efficiency and hit reduced unit costs YoY to deliver planned financial outcomes.

Accountabilities
Commercial and decision support : Commercial / financial support for business cases related to the Northern Ireland Field and Desk team (and Other Operating costs), Influencing financial decisions through sound financial and commercial insight.
Communicating and stakeholder management : Communicating with business the total operating costs and revenue for Openreach NI. Working with commercial and transformation and business planning teams to develop and communicate financial insights to support decision making.
Liaising with NI Financial Controller to ensure strong controls and reconciliations in place to deliver robust variance analysis reporting on monthly actuals and full year outlook versus Medium Term Plan (MTP)
Financial performance: Accountable for monthly reporting, outlook and medium term planning for NI Operating costs & revenue.?
This includes:

1. A full range of financial accountabilities linking operational metrics to financial performance
2. Highlighting risks & opportunities and driving actionable improvement plans.

Job specific accountabilities:

OPex:

• Direct Labour c1,000 FTE and Pay costs of c.£46m overtime.
• Energy Costs c£15m, Marketing & events
• Fleet, Fuel, Stores, Supply chain, Traffic Management
• Other Costs (T&S, Wayleaves etc)
• Other Operating Income (Alterations and Copper Recovery)
• Unit costs for FTTP and Copper Repair

Revenue:

• Bud v actual price /volume analysis on rev performance
• Financial accountability, control, assurance and stewardship for revenue.
• Extrapolation of actuals revenue trends comparison Vs plan

Business partnering with the commercial, and business planning team to identify risks and opportunities against the plan, monitor the performance of products (volume and ARPC), drive excellent commercial decision making

• Delivery of the Northern Ireland Commercial financial plan

Providing appropriate analysis and insight to inform business decisions, including complex commercial and financial modelling.

Skills required

• An ability to communicate clearly & concisely. Telling the story of the NI Operating cost, efficiency and revenue performance to multiple non-finance audiences
• Advanced Excel/financial modelling ability (large data sets)

• Experience of positively influencing business performance
• Pragmatic team player, adept at holding others to account through a challenging and supportive style, whilst consistently delivering on their own commitments
• An ability to manage multiple stakeholders and projects, working to tight deadlines
• Ability to manage ambiguity
• Advisor and coach to others both within own team and elsewhere, formulates their operational guidelines or in-depth knowledge and advises on specialist area
• Leads, champions and manages conflicting priorities

Desired qualifications / experience

• Bachelor's degree in business or related field (or equivalent experience)

The role holder will be;

• An excellent communicator, providing clear & concise reporting at exec level
• Work collaboratively with the India finance team to report on the period end and drive best practice on insight led reporting related to Northern Ireland Operating spend, resource base and revenue reporting provided.
• Will need to be an excellent stakeholder manager, ensuring they can build deep relationships with the Openreach business partners
• Will need to drive best practice across the business, whilst fostering local ownership
• Experience of positively influencing business performance, by using data, advanced financial modelling, powerful commentary and analysis to inform decision making?at the Openreach SMT level.
• Fully qualified accountant / Further qualification to support specialism